1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical connector for connecting electrical wires and equipment to each other and more particularly to an electrical connector having a terminal extracting block for extracting terminals from terminal accommodating cavities and for fixing the terminals in position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A common practice of locking terminals in a terminal accommodating cavity of a connector involves, as shown in FIG. 11, providing a resilient locking arm b on an inner wall a1 of the terminal accommodating cavity a and engaging a locking projection b1 of the locking arm b with a locking hole c2 of the electrical contact portion c1 of a terminal c to prevent the terminal c from being slipped off backward. In order to improve terminal sustaining force, it has been proposed that a spacer d (deflection preventing piece), which is indicated by a two-dot chain line, be inserted into a vacant space v between the locking arm b and the inner wall a1, thereby prevents the locking arm b from being deflected in the direction indicated by an arrow p.
The terminal c is extracted with a terminal extracting jib e by disconnecting the resilient locking arm from the terminal c. In other words, an extracting pin e1 of the terminal extracting jig e, which is made of metal, is inserted between the terminal c and the resilient locking arm b, and a tip of the extracting pin e1 is abutted to a concave portion of the locking arm b and is prized to disconnect the arm b from the terminal c by urging the arm toward the inner wall a1. When the spacer d is mounted, as illustrated in FIG. 12A, after the spacer d is extracted to obtain a preliminary locking position, the extracting pin e1 is inserted from a narrow opening between the spacer d and the electrical contact portion c1 and the tip thereof is abutted to the concave portion b2 of the resilient locking arm b in the same manner as described above to extract the terminal c as shown in FIG. 12B.
In the conventional terminal extracting method described above, however, it is required to prepare a tool such as the terminal extracting jig to directly prize the electrical contact portion of the terminal and the resilient locking arm, which may cause the electrical contact portion and the terminal to be damaged. Further, when the spacer is used, it is worrisome to move the spacer to the preliminary locking position. In this case, since it is difficult to observe in the terminal accommodating cavity, excessive force may be applied to the tool, which may cause a serious damage to the resilient locking arm.